


Wasteland Woe

by AdamH312



Series: Curristan Chronicles [11]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Fallout (Video Games)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:41:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27657659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdamH312/pseuds/AdamH312
Summary: Curristan is feeling the pressure of existence in the Capital Wasteland. As he deals with a perilous journey back to his base, he wrestles with questions about his role there and a very uneasy choice is made to end a war.
Series: Curristan Chronicles [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/994611





	1. A Run of Bad Luck

Curristan was in serious trouble.

The plan had gone completely wrong and now he was fleeing with his life from near the ruins of Raven Rock with his life. The reconnaisance mission had started well, with Curristan moving stealthily into the area. However a remnant Enclave patrol had stumbled upon him and was now firing on him as he fell back. Their laser rifles packed quite a punch and there was a risk of if he was shot in the wrong place he would die instantly without any chance of being able to regenerate.

However he had managed to get into a hiding place and now was waiting. As he did so he was cursing himself for being so stupid. He had no done no prior viewing of the area and now he was fighting to stay alive.

The laser fire flashed past his position and struck the ridge ahead, pockmarking the stone. Then the sound of power armour weighted footsteps moved closer and a male electronically enhanced voice spoke.

“ _Looks like the guy got away. That will teach him to sneak so close. By the way how long are we staying here?”_

Another voice drawled out a reply. _“Well I am not high enough to be in the know. Looks like with most of our command now gone we are now blind. Anyway lets go.”_

The footsteps then began to slowly get quieter as the two Enclave soldiers moved back northwards.

Breathing a sigh of relief Curristan moved slowly to peek out of his hiding place. He could see they were now out of sight so he decided to beat a hasty retreat southwards as quickly as he could.

Reaching a relative safe point in his old forward operating base, he decided that as the light was fading he would now lay low in here and then after some rest move on. He was glad he had packed well, though he knew that his Assault Rifle would be useless if any Enclave patrols were this far south.

Checking around he found that the protectrons he had left had been riddled with laser fire and were therefore just worthless hunks of scrap. However he found that it had been occupied by someone recently as a couple tins of Cram were still here with a bottle of Nuka Cola which the latter Curristan took for himself.

As night fell, he had lapsed into a decent doze with the sounds of Bloatflies around him. The door he knew had been sealed so right now he felt the safest he had been for twenty four hours. Waking at around sunrise he felt that he had dodged a serious situation and he knew that it was yet to be over.

Continuing southwards, he turned away from the Potomac and began moving on a bearing which would take him on a path east of Fort Bannister. As he walked his mind was alert but he was also worried that he was now becoming reckless after being in the wasteland for some time.

He had been injured not too long ago on the right side of his neck but the wound had been only minor and was not a cause to use a regeneration. It had put him on bed rest for several days while the knife wound had healed, his healing abilities being slightly better than humans. However the close call had made him much more cautious. But he had hoped the trip he had made would bring back his confidence.

However he was now retreating back with nothing to show for it, except renewed self doubt and worry. This really was a blow to his morale after many successes he had managed to pull off since arriving. The bad memories of the Time War was now coming back with a vengence, along with a feeling of melancholy.

There was a feeling in Curristan's mind that despite so far being fairly free of danger, he knew that eventually his luck would run out and he may be forced to regenerate. He just hoped that he would not end up falling to darker impulses due to the savagery and depravity of the wasteland.

The evening found him continuing to move south. As he walked he suddenly felt that he was in another serious situation. A battle between raiders groups and the Brotherhood Outcasts east of Fort Bannister could be seen on the horizon, explosions rumbling in the near distance. Wisely, Curristan dropped into a small crevice to take shelter and make sure he would not become a target himself.

_'Great, I am stuck here now. Seems like I am out of luck at the moment...'_

Shifting he made sure that he was not seen as fire was exchanged not far from his hiding spot. He knew that he would be unable to do anything as he was not sure what sort of soldiers the Outcasts were as he only had seen second hand reports of their activities. Sighing, he pulled out a camouflage net and set it up facing the battle so he could use his binoculars to monitor the battle.


	2. A Bad day to be a Raider

The fire from both sides had ripped past his hiding place many times as he waited for the battle to come to an end. He had managed to keep his head down, observing as the Outcasts had finally gained the advantage as were pushing the raiders slowly eastwards as they cleared out the surprisingly large raider force. As he watched he noted that these raiders were using military tactics and were actually using decent weapons. However the Outcasts had the superior technology and every position the Raiders stood at was eventually relinquished as they fell back. Even so it looked that they were not taking too many casualties as they retreated in relatively good order.

By the afternoon the Outcasts had won the field and had began to clear up. Curristan knew that there was no chance of him gaining anything, as true to rumours the Outcasts were retrieiving any technology they could find. However the Raiders had managed to retreat with their weapons leaving not much. After just over an hour the Outcast soldiers began to head back northwest, allowing Curristan a chance to pack up and leave his hiding place. He knew that he needed to get moving or he would run out of supplies and would have to divert to Megaton.

Deciding to walk during the night, he pushed on. The snow had disappeared from the wasteland as conditions moved towards Spring. There had been a marked increase in activity as the wintry weather eased off and warmer days returned. Curristan had now been in the Capital Wasteland six months and he now considered it a home away from home. As he approached the VAPL-84 Power Station, he suddenly heard some gunfire and screams. Quickly gaining a viewpoint he saw six raiders being chased by a Yuo Guai, their fire not hampering its chase at all.

Looking at the chase, Curristan decided to leave them to their fate. He had no weapon powerful enough to take it down, plus the raiders would just turn on him once the threat to them was over. As he thought that, two of the raiders were slashed in half by a blow from one of the Yuo Guai's limbs, the others scattering to confuse it. As they disappeared still being chased, Curristan slowly sneaked out of his hiding place and contiued his journey.

He focused on the surrounding area as he walked, wary of any movement. He had only a couple magazines left for his Assault Rifle and a magazine for the 10mm Pistol on his hip holster. The weather was still quite cold and as the afternoon was now drawing to a close, the temperature would still drop further. The end of the journey was in sight though.

Finally after what had been a taxing journey, he had arrived back at his base in the Rob-Co Building. The building thankfully had been untouched with the defences still operational. The rustic looking building though how dirty and damaged it was, was still a great sight of the safe home it had become. The feeling of being settled was now what Curristan could say he had, though it was unlikely he would say it was the Capital Wasteland, more so this version of Earth.

Slipping his backback off and dropping it onto the floor, he sat back into his favourite chair. The room had not been touched in his absence and its safe familiarity after the danger he had just been through being comforting. The place had been added to since he had arrived with various toolbenches and several terminals connected to the Rob-Co Mainframes. The Rob-Co Command Codes had meant that he could easily control any protectrons or any other Rob-Co robotic equipment without having lengthy period trying to hack them.

He though had a major plot to readjust the playing field by collecting weapons and redistribute them through his contacts at Megaton and Rivet City with the aim of destroying the evil mercenary Talon Company organisation who had been operating terrorism type operations for a while. The distribution would also help against the countless raider bands which roamed the Capital Wasteland. There was already a significant stockpile of weapons at the Rob-Co Building already and Curristan was ready to add to it.

He also had the option for a strategic nuclear attack against a known Talon Company outpost which had been established at Paradise Falls during the winter. It had a significant number of operatives and attacks towards caravans had inreased before a skirmish between them and the Regulators near Big Town had made them retreat back to their stronghold. The sudden appearance of the Talon Company in that area in such concentration of numbers had been a massive shock and had altered his plans.

The situation since the defeat of the Enclave and the activation of the Purifier from a military standpoint had been a rise in Brotherhood of Steel operations and the fall of Super Mutant forays outside the DC Central area. The amount of casualties caused by them had fallen, though raider presence was still relatively at the same level. It had been now a few months since that first event and in a general way there was not really that much drop in death and destruction.

Curristan was however not willing to effect any plans which caused any major loss of innocent life. That meant that the nuclear strike would not be enacted for some time until he had made sure that the situation was right. That meant a lot of bored waiting. The fact that when it happened, he was to flee to the Mojave Desert to set up a new base as the Capital Wasteland would no longer be worth staying in by his opinion.

Therefore right now he just waited and was to bide his time before he finally enacted his plan or a new event changed things. He was at least flexible in his actions and you could never account for anything in this wasteland.


	3. Benefiting in the Situation

It was now April 2278 and there had been an explosion into open conflict between the Regulators and Talon Company.

The war had began on the 1st with a coordinated attack on Big Town, which ended with the overwhelming of its few defenders and the survivors fleeing to Megaton where the Regulators had deployed into defensive positions. The Talon Company unable to head south had then come west towards Arefu before being stopped again by a determined defence there. However there was a seige which had been going for several days.

Meanwhile Curristan had enacted his plan and many weapons had made it to Megaton, which had given him a new ally in the Regulators. He had also given the intelligence that he had from his numerous trips around the wasteland, which would give the Regulators more places to utilise. This had the benefit of reinforcing the level of security of the wasteland south of the front line except the DC ruins and allowed the Regulators the chance to recruit more people into their ranks.

Curristan also had a new scheme in place which would help himself for once. He had downloaded countless files about all Rob-Co Products from Pip-Boys, to Stealth Boys, robotic systems, terminals and operating systems. He had also managed to find blueprints for the Liberty Prime project which had been developed with General Atomics. It was a massive amount of useful information and would be utilised at any opportunity. All of it was now in his TARDIS's databanks.

He knew that he would love to get his hands on Vault-Tec files too as the vaults would have a lot of useful technology which could open more opportunities. The fact that Vault Tec seemed to have been doing countless things before the nuclear exchanges, made Curristan feel that sooner or later he would be able to find something that he could use or adapt for his needs. This new self centred mindset had come about as he continued to believe that he would never be able to do as good a job as the Doctor could, plus the wasteland seemed to probably never improve even if he tried to help too much. He would help here and there, but he was mostly concerned with gathering resources for his current or future use.

With regards to his plans to use the nuclear bomb in his possession, that had been totally abandoned as there seemed to be no real practical reason to use it against the Talon Company as his other efforts to assist the Regulators seemed to be doing a much more efficient job. Also he wasnt really sure he could predict the collateral damage from the explosion and fallout of a megaton level detonation.

**April 14 th 2278**

The recent fighting had come uncomfortably close to Megaton with a battle right outside its walls, with the Regulators and Brotherhood of Steel coming to reinforce them during the battle forcing a major Talon Company strike force to retreat with heavy losses on both sides. Many wastelanders had fled into the safety of the town before the battle started, with the defensive lines almost right up against the perimeter walls.

The attack had come at a time where the Talon Company had been on the asendency despite the Regulators finally securing an alliance with the Brotherhood of Steel only a few days before. The reinforcements sent to Megaton had been the first time the Brotherhood had been in serious combat since the Battle of the Lincoln Memorial and the liberation of Project Purity. It had lasted fifteen hours from dawn til dusk when the surviving Talon Company mercenaries fled back north under harrassing fire from Brotherhood Vertibirds.

The battle had been an attritional one with the defenders basically holding a defensive line and the attackers coming in relentlessly to try and force an opening. The fact that they had a significant weapon stockpile from Curristan had meant they were able to weather the attacks well and even had managed to use Fat Man Launchers to good effect, inflicting heavy casualties. In the end, they had managed to nullify the assault, but had not pursued due to the fading light and the fact they were dealing with their wounded and dead.

Now being the following day, the Regulators had pushed patrols tentatively north, with them only finding corpses with abandoned weapons and equipment. In Megaton, a caravan of food and medical supplies had been sent from Rivet City the previous evening and had arrived just as the sun began to rise. Supply lines between these two places were a vital link and the battle had prevented a serious threat to it.

Curristan had however been not willing to participate in the battle. He had done what he could with the supplying of the defenders, but as he had thought as he saw the gunfire and explosions to his north east:

_'I won't throw myself into another people's conflict despite being called a coward for it. I shouldn't really be interfering at all but, you just can't help it when a bully picks on someone who can't defend themselves.'_

The other reason was that he knew that the Regulators with the Brotherhood had the upper hand and the position to win. Therefore news of their victory had been no surprise to him. It had been a confirmation of the inevitable. Now he would sit back and reap the rewards of his efforts to make sure Talon Company was either crippled or wiped out for good.

This was something he found he loved doing, with all of its benefits.


	4. Talon Company's Finale

It was now May and Talon Company had finally exhausted its efforts trying to expand its influence. Their attacks had gained ground more so to the west and coming close to the Rob-Co Building, though the defence line held around the VAPL-84 Power Station. Curristan himself had participated in the skirmish around there, before coming back to the base and again taking no further part.

His main role in this conflict was weapons and intelligence which through his network of spies he had set up since he had arrived were feeding him reports of goings on all over the Capital Wasteland. The intelligence network had been the backbone of informing the Regulators and the Brotherhood of Steel what was happening and helping to plan their operations.

**May 4 th 2278**

Curristan looked up from his terminal as he finished reading the day's reports. He knew that the next couple weeks would be crucial as the final touches were made to the next operation against Talon Company.

_'It's been tough these past few days. Though by now its been tough for a while.'_

Sipping his tea he thought of his time during the Time War. He had tried to adapt his experience as much as possible to what this conflict had become. He would have to intervene with the nuclear bomb as soon as he could as it seemed that the conflict was now at a deadlock.

Getting up he walked into his TARDIS and began to program the flight computer for a short flight to Paradise Falls where the bomb would be placed with a delayed timer. He expected that the device had a yield of twenty megatons which was more than enough to cripple the Talon Company command structure which was currently occupying it.

As he flew towards the target, he reconfigured his architectural configuration so he could assess the bay where the bomb was located. Changing into a protective suit he made his way into the bay and began to arm the bomb to detonate in six hours.

It was just after midnight when the TARDIS materialised at Paradise Falls. It had materialised in the armoury, which was perfect to hide the bomb. Quickly he made sure he had again reconfigured the TARDIS before dematerialising again, leaving the now rearmed bomb behind as it counted down.

Returning back to the base Curristan felt a grim confliction. He knew that he was going to kill many, but the result would benefit the Capital Wasteland despite this. The chance to strike this massive blow could not go unwasted and the power of the strike would send a message to all Talon Company mercenaries that were to survive, that there was a price for their terror that they had inflicted.

He sat down in his chair and sat reading a book while he waited for the time when the entire wasteland would see his plan finally come to completion. As the time drew near, Curristan walked through the front doors and waited while looking to the north.

A short time later, a sudden bright hot flash erupted followed by a huge rumbling. At ground zero of the explosion, Paradise Falls disappeared in an instant as the fireball vapourised everything. Men and masonry vanished along with a good portion of the nearby area.The shockwave rolled outwards, with many wastelanders who were within sight of it stopped in awe as the mushroom cloud began to climb upwards. Fires erupted in areas where there were buildings within the heat burst and several nearby structures including the Germantown Police Headquarters received heat damage. Trees and foliage which existed also burned.

Curristan watched in fascination as the mushroom cloud climbed ever higher into the now blood red and orange sky. He knew that the cloud would be seen for miles, the heavy impact of it marking the day as one for the history books. However he knew that there would be some consequenes as the radiation level would spike and he could already see the signs of incoming irradiated clouds bringing tainted rain.

The immediate problem of the explosion was now the massive amount of irradiated soil which now was raining back down to the ground after it was sucked into the mushroom cloud. Also every single working communication had been blasted by the electromagnetic pulse and there no way to know if any wastelanders had been caught in the explosion.

Curristan did know that he had definitely miscalculated as this would not go down well. It had not been a coordinated effort with the Regulators and Brotherhood of Steel. The blast would have been totally unexpected as they did not know he had the bomb. If they had redeployed any scouts into the area he had known about they would of certainly perished, which made uneasy thoughts.

What was on Curristans mind was now an exit strategy. What should he do? The Mojave Wasteland had been his next destination regardless but he has hoped that he would leave the Capital Wasteland in a much better position. It looked like now he would have to cut his losses. Walking inside, he began to start deactivating and packing up the robotic equipment that he knew he could use again, plus the terminals he thought he would use.

As night fell, Curristan was ready. Dematerialising from the failures behind him, the TARDIS headed for its new destination the Mojave Wasteland and a new chapter. Hopefully he would learn from his mistakes and the next time prosper.


End file.
